Wednesday Music News

06/24/2015

Janice Headley

Has it really been 20 years? Scottish post-punk band Mogwai celebrate two decades as a band with the retrospective collection Central Belters, a box set of hits and rarities available as a three-CD or six-LP. As an example of the goods, today they share a video for an 18-year-old track “Helicon 1″ (aka “New Paths to Helicon, Pt. 1″), directed by Craig Murray using 35mm stills. Watch below. Central Belters hits stores on October 9th through Mogwai’s own Rock Action Records. [Consequence of Sound]

If you've ever wanted to hear a folksy version of the Talking Heads, Iron & Wine and Ben Bridwell of Band of Horses have got this heartfelt take of "This Must Be the Place (Naive Melody)" for you. Their version appears on the covers album Sing Into My Mouth, which also features the boys tackling tracks by Sade, El Perro del Mar, Spiritualized and more. (No, sadly, the Sade cover isn't "Smooth Operator.") Sing Into My Mouth hits stores on July 17th via both Sam Beam's Black Cricket and Bridwell's Brown record labels. [Pitchfork]

Northwest legend and K Records founder Calvin Johnson is auctioning off some of his old jeans from the '80s. Perhaps he wore these on stage during a Beat Happening show? Maybe while in the studio with The Halo Benders? In the eBay listings, he details they've been worn "to punk shows in Olympia, Portland, Tacoma, Seattle, New York, Washington DC, Tokyo, and around the world." As of this writing, bids are up in the $50 range, so get in there. [Stereogum]

It's clear John Grant hasn't lost his twisted sense of humor: his forthcoming full-length is titled Grey Tickles, Black Pressure, a play on words as "grey tickles" translates to "midlife crisis" from Icelandic to English, and "black pressure" means "nightmare" in Turkish. In a press release, Grant says "I wanted to get moodier and angrier on this record, but I probably had a lot more fun making it." Guest appearances include Tracey Thorn, Amanda Palmer, and former Banshees drummer Budgie. Check out the trailer below: [Under the Radar]

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